Job 6:17

17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was.

Job 6:17 Meaning and Commentary

Job 6:17

What time they wax warm they vanish
The ice and the snow, which, when the weather becomes warm, they melt away and disappear; and in like manner, he suggests his friends ceased to be friends to him in a time of adversity; the sun of affliction having looked upon him, they deserted him, at least did not administer comfort to him:

when it is hot they are consumed out of their place;
when it is hot weather, and the sun has great strength then the waters, which swelled through the floods and fall of rain and snow, and which when frozen, looked black and big as if they had great depth in them, were quickly dried up, and no more to be seen in the place where they were; which still expresses the short duration of friendship among men, which Job had a sorrowful experience of.

Job 6:17 In-Context

15 My nearest relations have not regarded me; they have passed me by like a failing brook, or like a wave.

16 They who used to reverence me, now have come against me like snow or congealed ice.

17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was.

18 Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.

19 Behold the ways of the Thaemanites, ye that mark the paths of the Sabaeans.